There Are Scarier Things Than Goblins
by DefectedDegenerate
Summary: She was young and vulnerable, she was alone, she was terrified. He knew her, he had watched her for years, and it was time to take what he had been promised only years before. It was time. Jareth/OC


She was 17 when her mother died, now she is 18 and living with her grandmother in a plush mansion miles away from actual existence. She had dropped out of school to take care of her sick mother when she turned 17, a few months later her dear mother passed away. Her father had been gone for years, she remembers him tussling her soft blonde hair and telling her that she was his whole world and without her his world would shatter. He left that same night and didn't come back. She was 7. The only living family she had left was her old, decrepit grandmother, Sarah. A year had passed and nothing strange had occurred. She awoke that morning to a scream and shattering glass.

"Penelope!" the voice carried through the house. It bounced off every mirror and window; it seeped through every piece of cloth. Penelope shot up and hurriedly ran down the stairs. She was afraid; no she was more than afraid. She was terrified. She felt the adrenaline running through her veins as she busted into the kitchen to find her grandmother with her hand stretched out and staring at the ground where the shattered remnants of something was lying motionless. Penelope side-stepped the disaster and made her way over to her grandmother. Sarah was already bending down to clean up the mess but Penelope grabbed her upper arm and led her out into the living room. She sat her on the couch and walked back into the kitchen to clean up the glass. Whenever she had grabbed the broom and dust pan from the hall closet she stepped into the kitchen. Immediately everything fell out of her hands and she stared at the scene before her. There was no glass, only a single crystal ball. She walked up to it cautiously and bent down to better inspect it. She picked it up carefully, afraid that it would break, and stared into it. She saw something like a party, with fancy ball gowns and masked strangers. She gasped and let the crystal ball drop from her hand. Instead of shattering on the floor it simply rolled away under the refrigerator. Penelope grabbed the broom and dust pan and backed out of the kitchen very slowly, never taking her eyes off of the refrigerator. She bumped into something and let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Shh, Penelope dear. It's just me." Her grandmother's voice told her. She sighed and turned around to see that Sarah was stark white and shaking. She had a small smile on her face but her eyes held worry, and terror, and even a bit of malice. Penelope grabbed her grandmother's shoulders and turned her around.

"We need to get some rest grandmother, we just need some rest. Let me help you to your room." She whispered, half distracted. Her grandmother nodded in agreement but didn't say anything else. They walked quietly away from the kitchen and each to their own separate rooms. Penelope couldn't quite place what had happened but she tacked it all up to exhaustion. She hadn't slept soundly in a good two weeks because something was lying dormant in her mind. It was waiting to evolve into something else, something bigger, and she could feel that it wasn't going to be good. She was afraid, only slightly, of her mind. After her mother passed away she began to have weird feelings, as if someone was always watching over her, as if some presence wanted to hurt her or her grandmother. Whatever that feeling was it had gotten worse two weeks prior when she was at home by herself.

She was sitting on her bed, laptop out and the past month's events playing on the news at a low volume. She was writing again, like she did frequently, about how she was feeling. She had a lot of feelings lately but for some reason she didn't show them. She hid them; they were non-existent to the outside world. She wanted to express them but she found it difficult, like learning to ride a bike. She wasn't getting any better at showing her emotions though and it was driving a wedge between her and her grandmother. She cared for her grandmother a great deal actually, and was concerned for her health, but she noticed that like herself, her grandmother was very withdrawn. She was quiet and secretive and passive, just like Penelope's mother before she died. That was the topic of her night's writing, the death of her mother. She wanted to write it all out in hope that she would forget it. She wanted to forget more than she wanted to breathe.

As she was typing she heard a noise downstairs. Thinking it was her grandmother she let it go and kept writing. Not but ten minutes later she heard the noise again but this time louder; it sounded like it came from her grandmother's room across the hall. She muted her TV and shut the lid to her laptop. She slid out of her bed and slipped on the pair of slippers she always kept beside her bed. She slipped out into the hallway and across the room to Sarah's room. She peeked inside and saw nothing but complete darkness. A cold chill ran up her spine and she quickly shut the door and walked downstairs. What she saw next chilled her to the very bone and she was paralyzed. There, on the floor, was glass and the window was broken; the doors smacking loudly against the walls. She stepped forward and looked out of the window to see nothing but moonlight. She shut and latched the windows. She turned around and looked at the glass to see something else mixed in with it. She bent down and picked up whatever it was and held it in the moonlight that was streaming through the broken glass. She ran it through her fingers and dropped it. She watched it float to the ground carelessly; it was glitter. She heard another noise upstairs so she did what any girl her age would do… she grabbed a knife and walked up the stairs slowly, as if whatever was making that noise was going to run past her at any moment. She heard the sound again; it was still coming from her grandmother's room. She grabbed her cell phone from her pocket and called the only person that could ease her mind.

"Hello?"…..  
"Grandmother?" she asked tentatively. She heard heavy breathing on the other end.  
"Yes dear, are you alright?" Sarah asked. She shook her head but realized that her grandmother probably couldn't see that.  
"You're not home are you?" she asked. Silence…  
"No dear, why?" Sarah asked after a few minutes.  
"The window downstairs is broken and there's glass everywhere and now there are noises coming from your room." Penelope answered. Her grandmother gasped.  
"Let me call the poli-" Sarah began.  
"Grandmother wait! There's also…glitter, on the floor…" Penelope said. She was beginning to feel crazy. A long silence followed and Penelope didn't think her grandmother was going to answer at all.  
"Go into your room and wait for me." She said quietly and then the line went dead. Penelope was not one for waiting so instead of hiding in her room she opened her grandmother's door again and heard a slight rustling. Her breathing got heavier and she reached over and flipped the light switch on. As soon as she did she was bombarded by glitter. She screamed slightly and then looked down at the floor. There was glitter by her grandmother's closet, which was ransacked, and then there was a small trail of glitter leading up to her. It stopped directly in front of her. She gasped and slid down the wall and sat on the floor.

That thing, whatever it was, was standing less than 2 inches away from her.


End file.
